Wednesday, November 09, 2005

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands- 9th Conference of Parties (CoP) on at Kampala,Uganda.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has started its 9th Conference of Parties (CoP) in Kampala,Uganda, against evidence of accelerating loss and degradation of wetlands around the world. The theme of this year’s conference is “Wetlands – supporting life, sustaining livelihoods”. This is shown by the Wetlands Synthesis Report of the Millennium EcosysteAssessment(MEA), which will be released at the CoP this week.

Achim Steiner,Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in his opening address said “The gap between the spirit and guidance of this Convention and the state of wetlands is becoming bigger. It is clear that such an assessment [the MEA] requires a clear response from the Contracting Parties and the organisations that work closely with them,”. Steiner urged participants to follow that example and integrate wetland conservation into otherPolicies and sectors. “The key principles of this convention must be integrated into Poverty Reduction Strategy papers, and be the basis for our engagement with the water sector, finance ministries and development agencies,” he suggested.